Systemic racism persists throughout history and is overlooked by thousands of people today. One example of this can be seen in Alejandra’s life. Being the only daughter of Mexican immigrants to participate in the International Baccalaureate program unlike her fellow Latinos, she was discriminated against. When she graduated, her guidance counselor discouraged her from pursuing her dreams of a 4-year college but rather pursued a local community college like other Latinos (Kuznia 2017).
This creates a stereotype and injustice towards Latinos. In my opinion, this created subtle racism. While some are clear, this small advice could be seen as undermining Latinos in education. Just because of race, she was seen as “different” taking higher-level courses and persuaded to join her fellow Latinos later in college. A counselor could have possibly meant to segregate a student and subtle messages like these could still be a reason why racism still persists in the public education system. This perpetuates the inequality in a school system and is taking longer for minority students to become “normal” in a predominantly white school system.
This is relevant to us today because while racism is getting acknowledged by people, the subtle cues are going unnoticed. Although most of the racism today in schools isn’t born from the hate, students unknowingly form groups based on race and sometimes tend to exclude the minority. Personally, for me, it has happened throughout elementary to college. Whether I’m treated as the “smart Indian” or the “brown girl”, the repeated subtle cues have become the new normal.
This story is related to the idea of the “subaltern”. Spivak questions whether the subaltern can speak and in this case, the voice of the subaltern is very limited. The Latinos in this case are seen as the minority being judged in a specific way. The counselor is making an assumption and not equally holding the girl to the same standard. Alejandra is only pushing for her dreams but has no say in what she wants. To eliminate this systemic racism, we have to realize the intentional and unintentional racism and be inclusive towards all minorities.
Below is a link to an article as well as 2 pictures. The first one indicates Hispanics have one of the highest dropout rates and it can be tied to the unnoticed racism in society. The second one shows how much of the population is made up of Latinos and if the intentional and unintentional racism persists, it could affect a majority of the public education population.
https://psmag.com/education/racism-in-schools-unintentional-3821
I really enjoyed your showcase because you made great connections to the discussions we have had in class. When minorities are treated inequal, it puts them at a disadvantage. Without the resources they need, they don’t have the opportunity to succeed as others do, which is clearly shown in the graphs you included.
I liked how you connected these subtle messages that often intensify and contribute to systemic injustices. Often times people let stereotypes control their opinions and what they say without even realizing it and that often can add up to larger scale discrimination.